Reversible Carrier and Harness System for Eye Patch Constraints

ABSTRACT

The invention is an eye patch harness used to hold eye patches in place during athletic exertion, using a cloth worn on the head with eyelets in the cloth that position the eye patch precisely. Such a harness does not move easily, and allows a wearer to move without concern that the patch will lose proper position.

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

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STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

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The Names of the Parties to a Joint Research Agreement

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INCORPORATION-BY-REFERENCE OF MATERIAL SUBMITTED ON A COMPACT DISC

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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Field of the Invention: The invention pertains to eye patches andstructures to hold them in place on a user's during exercise or otherphysical exertion.

Background Art: Eye care professionals have long recognized that humanstend to have a dominant eye and a weaker eye. Competitors in many sportsfind that they perform better when they improve the strength of theweaker eye. Ophthalmologists often find that children and occasionaladults with Amblyopia (“Lazy Eye”) and Strabismus (“Cross-Eyed”) canfind some benefit from strengthening a weaker eye.

Common approaches to strengthening a weaker eye are 1) eye drops in thestronger eye, which blur the images from the strong eye to the brain,which forces the brain to work with the images sent by the weaker eye,and 2) use of an eye patch on the stronger eye, which denies the brainany image at all from the stronger eye, and also forces the weaker eyeto strengthen.

Eye patches are known in the art. They may be held in place with astring, strap, or elastic band that fits around the user's head. Lessused are adhesive strips or patches attached to a pair of eyeglasses.However, an eye patch held in place by a strap can easily fall off orchange position during athletic events. Eye patches held in place withadhesives can be irritating to the skin, and also fail to hold the eyepatch in place when a wearer is playing sports such as basketball.Similarly, eye patches affixed to a pair of glasses tend to slide orlose proper position during strenuous exercise.

Coaches often need to evaluate an athlete's abilities, and occasionallydesire to test performance with a patch over the strong eye. Today if acoach wants to conduct such an evaluation, he must have an eye patchthat fits reliably on the athlete's head, is not overly bothersome to awearer that is not familiar with use of an eye patch, and can be used oneither eye. Existing eye patches are not always reversible, are verydistracting, and tend to dislodge during sporting events. Thus, there isa continuing need for an eye patch addressing one or more of theseproblems.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention is a harness worn on an athlete's head that is constructedto carry an eye patch and maintain its proper position during heavyphysical exertion. The harness includes a wide head band and cinch tohold the band snugly to the user's head. It is built to be reversible,in that it can be used on either eye. In using a head band as part ofthe structure, the user does not have to worry about fragile glasses,bothersome adhesives, or the single string that is so often used to holdan eye patch in place.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING(S)

FIG. 1—A view of the invention from a wearer's front side.

FIG. 2—A view of the invention form the back of the wearer.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

According to the present invention, the foregoing and other objects andadvantages are attained by a eye patch harness 11 that holds an eyepatch 13 in place.

As shown in the figures, an eye patch 13 is worn so that it covers upone eye, using the traditional string 15, but rather than allowing thestring to move, it is held in place by the harness 11. The harness 11has eyelets or loops 17 through which the eye patch string 15 isthreaded. In this embodiment, the eye patch string 15 is not elastic,and the string must be tied at the back or restrained from looseningwith some sort of cinch 19.

The figures in the drawings show the eye patch on the left eye, but theinvention can be constructed with the loop positions reversed to coverup the right eye, or built with a dual-purpose to reverse the eyeposition from the right to the left, or vice versa, by making thehead-band reversible, and the loops placed symmetrically.

Loops 17 built into the harness 11 are not evenly spaced or positioned,as they are designed to place the eye patch 13 over the eye in aparticular place by holding the eye patch string 15 so the patch sitsjust below the harness 11 while covering an eye. Another set of loops 17are on the reverse side of the harness 11 which provide spacing andpositioning for the eye patch string 15 when a user wishes to cover theother eye, making the device more flexible.

The harness 11 maintains the eye patch 13 position during heavy physicalexertion. The harness 11 includes a wide head band and cinch 15 to holdthe band snugly to the user's head. It is built to be reversible, inthat it can be used on either eye. In using a wide head band as part ofthe structure, the user does not have to worry about fragile glasses,bothersome adhesives, or the slippage that occurs when the patch is heldin place by a single string that is the most commonly used method ofsecuring an eye patch.

While this invention has been described as it is currently built, theinvention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments, but can beemployed in various equivalent arrangements included within the spiritand scope of the claims.

1. An athletic eye patch harness, comprising: a cloth which encircles awearer's head, eyelets or loops located in the cloth through which aneye patch's string is interlaced, an eye patch held in place by a stringor elastic band that interlaces through the harness loops, said loopslocated in the cloth such that an eye patch is kept in proper positionover a user's eye.
 2. An athletic eye patch harness, as in claim 1, witha cinch included to hold the eye patch string at the proper tautness. 3.An athletic eye patch harness, as in claim 1, constructed so that theharness is reversible, meaning that when the harness is worn with oneside out, the loops are positioned to hold an eye patch over the righteye, but when the harness is worn with the other side out, the eye patchis positioned over the left eye.